The Siege of AR-558
' |image= |series= |production=40510-558 |producer(s)= |story= |script= Ira Steven Behr and Hans Beimler |director= Winrich Kolbe |imdbref=tt0708640 |guests=Raymond Cruz as Vargas, James Darren as Vic Fontaine, Aron Eisenberg as Nog, Max Grodénchik as Rom, Annette Helde as Larkin, Patrick Kilpatrick as Reese and Bill Mumy as Kellin |previous_production=Once More Unto the Breach |next_production=Covenant |episode=DS9 S07E08 |airdate= 18 November 1998 |previous_release=(DS9) Once More Unto the Breach (Overall) Timeless |next_release=(DS9) Covenant (Overall) Infinite Regress |story_date(s)=Unknown |group="N"}} (2375) |previous_story=Once Upon a Time |next_story=Timeless }} Summary The planet AR-558 is notable only for being the site of a major Dominion communications relay. It has already been seized by Starfleet soldiers, and paid for in blood; of the 150 sent to the planet, 43 still live. They have not been rotated off-duty for over five months; a contravention of Starfleet regulations which insist that infantry be rested every 90 days. The USS Defiant arrives carrying supplies and replicator rations. Captain Benjamin Sisko commands, with Worf as executive officer, Ezri Dax and Dr. Julian Bashir along as tech and medical support, Ensign Nog as a crewmember, and Quark, sent on a "fact-finding mission" by the Grand Nagus. After an abortive error involving friendly fire, Sisko lands on the planet and begins to assess the situation. The Jem'Hadar are interested in regaining their communications relay; Lt. Nadia Larkin, ranking officer, is just as insistent that Starfleet keep it, but with the Dominion supplying fresh troops and Starfleet doing no such thing, the odds are poor. Furthermore, Bashir's professional medical opinion is that the soldiers are in bad need of being replaced, a fact simply not logistically possible. Ezri becomes an ad hoc assistant to the garrison's engineer, Kellin, in helping him decode and decipher the comm relay. Nog looks up to the battle-hardened veterans as heroes, to Quark's consternation; the elder Ferengi has seen the brutal, nastier side of these "hoo-mans," and he warns Nog not to become too enamoured of them. Finally, Sisko is pushed into a decision when the Defiant comes under attack. He orders Worf to take the ship to safety; he and his men are staying to fight. Sisko begins by fortifying the garrison's defenses. The Dominion have left a set of booby-traps: "Houdini" anti-personnel mines that can pass in and out of subspace at random. Kellin and Dax work out a way to force them into normal space, so that they can be moved out of the camp and used to halt attacking Jem'Hadar. He also sends out a scouting party to locate the Jem'Hadar base; Lt. Larkin leads, with Reese as survival expert and Nog as talent: his Ferengi ears will work where jammed tricorders will not. Quark naturally objects. The party gains the needed intelligence but is ambushed; Larkin is killed, and Nog is shot in the leg, which he ends up losing. The remaining Starfleet personnel prepare for the upcoming fight. Quark guards Nog in sickbay. Bashir sets up an audio broadcast of holosuite singer Vic Fontaine as Houdinis begin exploding. In the ensuing battle, many Starfleet personnel are killed, including Vargas and Kellin, and Quark kills a Jem'Hadar threatening Nog. In the aftermath, most of the Federation personnel are dead but the station is held and the relay is tapped. New supplies of troops arrive via the USS Veracruz, as well as a dedicated tech crew to commandeer the relay station; the Veracruz is also evacuating the wounded, including Nog, who will be fitted with a prosthetic limb. With control of the comm relay, Starfleet will be able to tap into Dominion communications throughout the entire sector. Errors and Explanations Nit Central # Murray Leeder on Monday, November 16, 1998 - 9:06 pm: So the Defiant is under attack (and has not raised shields yet, might I add), and Sisko tells them not beam the away team up. That's fine, but couldn't he ask for some more weapons or troops or something? That would have come in handy. There may not have been any more to spare – the Defiant isn’t exactly a big ship! # Bitmap on Tuesday, November 17, 1998 - 7:35 pm: From the commercial it looks like the federation phaser rifles were shooting bullets! At least they didn't appear to be firing any noticable beams. Am I mistaken on this? Charles Cabe on Tuesday, November 17, 1998 - 8:07 pm: They probably didn't have time to put in the special effects. Or they've reverted back to bullets unless the Borg return. # '' Steve Oostrom on Tuesday, November 17, 1998 - 9:31 pm:'' If this is such an important communications outpost, why not have ships in orbit? Why not have a larger crew of defenders and engineers to study the communications system? Why not attempt to build more powerful defenses? Federation resources could be spread too thin to permit this. # I see Worf was allowed to command the Defiant again. Sisko told him he never would get that chance again, but Jadzia's death probably meant that threat was no longer in effect. Kate Grosmaire on Wednesday, November 18, 1998 - 7:54 am: Re: Worf being in command of the Defiant. When Capt Sisko told him at the end of Change of Heart that he would probably never get a command, I thought he was saying that Worf would never be promoted to captain and given his own ship (or space station). I don't really see the Defiant as "his." He commands it on missions, just as Jadzia did last year during the war. But it's not like the Defiant is Worf's ship, as the Enterprise D or E are Picard's ships. The Defiant belongs to DS9 and I see it as Sisko's ship. And he just lets Worf take it out on a spin every now and then. As for things changing now that Jadzia is dead. That does not change the fact that Worf did what he did during Change of Heart. He will be denied a command because of the decision he made to return to Jadzia, not just because he was married. Kate Grosmaire on Wednesday, November 18, 1998 - 7:54 am: Worf is first officer of the Defiant and has been identifed as such. He is in command of the ship if Sisko is unavalible, just as Riker was in command of the Enterprise when Picard wasn't there. # Brian Henley on Saturday, November 21, 1998 - 1:49 pm: Why do the Jem'Holo'dars react when they get shot? Shouldn't the phaser blasts just go right through them? Not if they were solid holgrams programmed to respond in the same way as real Jem'Hadar! # Shane Tourtellotte on Saturday, November 21, 1998 - 6:32 pm: Why wasn't the Defiant cloaked on its way to AR-558? Did the Romulans finally make them give the cloaking device back? They probably felt it necessary to minimise their power usage. # Did anybody else think the Jem'Hadar tactic of "drop your camouflage and run in screaming" a little too--how shall I put this—stupid? Brian Webber (Bwebber) on Saturday, November 21, 1998 - 10:12 pm: Psychological warfare. I learned this from playing the Wing Commander games. The Kilrathi (the bad guys of WCs 1 through 3) always decloaked their stealth fighters at least a full minute before they attacked. They use it to try and scare the enemy. A scared enemy won't fight as well. # Harvey Kitzman on Sunday, November 22, 1998 - 8:10 am: I have a question about Nog. Shouldn't he technically be a cadet? I don't think he graduated from Starfleet Academy. Did he get a battlefield commission? Did I miss something Phil? And, if he hasn't graduated, why is he in a combat situation? Don't get me wrong, I like Nog - he has come a long way from the annoying little jerk in the beginning of the series. He is being refered to as an ensign, implying that he has graduated. Joel Croteau on Monday, November 23, 1998 - 12:05 am: Actually, Nog was given a field promotion to ensign sometime last season. # Hans Thielman on Sunday, November 22, 1998 - 12:49 pm: The Defiant is a combat vessel, not a freigher. Why, then, was it ferrying supplies? I saw no indication that the Defiant was serving as an escort vessel. A dedicated transport ship would have been too vulnerable. # Aaron Dotter on Tuesday, November 24, 1998 - 8:07 pm: The whole battle at the end, while very nicely done, never should have happened IMHO. Why not call up to the Defiant and tell Worf to lock a Quantum Torpedo onto the coordinates of the Jem'Hadar camp and blow it away? I didn't hear any reason why they couldn't. It was three Km away, so doing that shouldn't have affected the transmitter. Anonymous on Tuesday, November 24, 1998 - 10:56 pm: Umm.. pretty sure a Quantum torpedo would take out more than a Jem'Hedar camp. Aaron Dotter on Wednesday, November 25, 1998 - 6:02 pm: Well, OK, maybe not a Quantum Torpedo, but anything launched from a ship in orbit, like Photon Torps, phasers, A-Bombs, napalm, that could have killed the Jem'Hadar before they attacked would have saved the lives of all those Starfleet people. SeniramUK 15:45, July 19, 2019 (UTC) There was too great a risk of an incoming projectile being deflected or destroyed before it reached it's target! Notes Category:Episodes Category:Deep Space Nine